We all have our favorite shows from the Brent era. With regards to his later performances, I'm partial to the summer '89 and spring '90 tours myself, but I have tons of favorites spread across '80 - '85. Despite this, I've found that there is something special about Brent's first months touring with a rejuvenated and reinvigorated Grateful Dead. His early contributions make shows like this one really stand out.

First, Brent's keys setup is ideal here; a 'Dynoed' Fender Rhodes electric piano (see http://tinyurl.com/yz6yepa for details), Hammond B3 organ with Leslie speakers, clavinet, and a Mini Moog synthesizer. He blended these tones in with the band's sound as if they had been missing from it before. The bell-like punch of the Rhodes piano, the surges and swells of the B-3, and the eerie sonic wails of his synths on later songs like "Feel Like a Stranger" and "Space" have always impressed me. This fall tour is filled with shows where the band is just 'on' and full of energy, and they owe that in large part to Brent. His vocals are perfectly pitched as well. Too bad is songs were shit, but Easy to Love You is occasionally listenable. Regardless, Brent really helped to gel the bands '80s-era sound, but these early shows of experimentation are some of my favorite.

Cliched as this story might be, I've, just come home form camping with several friends, a fav. couple of mine of the, "We don't get that Grateful Dead crap" persuasion.

heh

Well, all it took was Mother Nature in her glory- incredible stars and an *almost* full moon, a crackling fire, a $200 old boombox and this show... (Oh yeah, and some really fresh corn on the tongue ;-)

I could almost see the look of "understanding" coming over their faces !

Set 1 - expertly played, a totally welcome Jack Straw to open the show and a note-perfect Candyman to follow. Stagger Lee is just beautiful; this is a reminder of why this song is one of my all-time faves in the Garcia/Hunter catalogue. Only Brent's ridiculously softball "Easy to Love You" doesn't fly in this first set. You can skip over it and be none the wiser.

Set 2 - just golden - this is really a vehicle for Brent moreso than Jer - just listen to how FUNKED OUT Dancin' is, and check out the interplay between Jer and Brent on Franklin's Tower - they are here as easy as you please, with absolutely no hurry at all. I myself totally welcome Brent's new sound - if you just listen to how dead the keys section was in early '79, even on the keeper shows, yeah, Brent really did what he needed to do, and unapologetically at that.

The suite from He's Gone carries a fantastic *hard* jam into the Other One. Post-Drums is fine enough, since we've had our cup filled several times over already; I am pleased that the boys still double-timed A&A in this era - they should have kept that up! After losing Donna that tune was never the same after peaking in 77-78, but here it's a completely rockin' conclusion to the set.

Great show, totally worth its accolades - the fall '79 tour is picking up steam!

Don't stop here much but I'm glad I did! The first set's nothing too exciting - Bobby sounds 'distant' and Brent still sounds a bit tentative.
Well, I don't know what happened during set break but the band just comes alive. Great second set with many high points (Phil creates more than his usual thunder on OO)but the Dancing>Franklin's just steals the show and makes this my favourite set of 79 so far.

this show is HOT. listen to Dancin' if anything. an to the people who bash the keyboard sounds. i used to never like these "tinker bell" key tones either but they grew on me after listen to the really good shows from this era. you gotta remember it was 1979 an the dead had a piano sound for a decade. they wanted something different and they got it. honestly after i saw dark star orchestra play a show from 85 with these keyboard tones i began to like the sound of them more. it almost sounds different live. cant explain it.

Great transfer of this amazing show. This second set is one of my top 10 favorites of all time. Really outstanding music.... every version.
All the soundboard sources of this show have had really noticeable speed changes during Dancin. I got used to it from my tape-listening days and was very pleasantly surprised to hear the hard work that Joe B. Jones and Charlie Miller have put into bringing this source back into a new life.
It's a fresh listen to this classic gem of a show.
I also highly recommend downloading one of the audience recordings of this show for very loud listening on a good sound system. As if you didn't know that already.

(At this point in time) Brent sounds like he is a very knowlegable, talented, capable musician. But the sound of his keyboard thing is horrible. It's real bad. Really, really bad. I don't know how someone an obvious "ear" can think that those keys sound good. It sounds like a toy. So fin bad.

Had to get that out. Brent would've sounded awesome with some decent equipment. Too bad...

This show is outstanding. Brent breathed new life into the band and they are playing their collective butts off. Check out the Dancin'>Franklin's thru the end. Wow, what a second set, 20 minute long Franklin's Tower. Candyman is fantastic as well. What an embarrassment of riches.

This is the version to listen as Charlie Miller has done an excellent job of transferring this wonderful show and fixing damaged areas with AUD patches. Well done. By comparison the other versions are muddy. BTW the next night is just as good.